Book Review: Out for Blood by Alyxandra Harvey

Hunter Wild, vampire hunter and star pupil at a top secret slayer academy has a crush on a guy called Quinn. He's tall, dark and very handsome. He's also a vampire, and one of the infamous Drake brothers at that.

As if forbidden love wasn't bad enough, something strange is also happening at the Helios-Ra academy. Vampire attacks are increasing, students are mysteriously falling ill and the teachers seem completely clueless. It's up to Hunter and her friends to put things right... that is, if she can get a certain immortal out of her head long enough to think about anything else. 

This is the third in the Drake Chronicles series by Alyxandra Harvey. I wasn't that big a fan on the second one but Out for Blood has reaffirmed my belief that this is a great series for young adults.
I loved the character of Hunter Wild, she is extremely feisty and has such a lot of responsibility and expectations placed upon  her. When things start to go wrong at the prestigious slayer academy that she attends, she knows that she has to step-up and find those responsible for hurting her friends. Whilst doing this she has to enlist the help of Quinn Drake, he is a member of the head vampire family and Hunter has been trained to stake vampires on first contact. However, staking is the last thing on Hunter's mind when she is around the delectable Quinn. Alyxandra Harvey builds up the tension  between these two characters so well. It reminded me of Bella and Edward in Twilight, they both know it's wrong but they just can't help themselves.
Out for Blood has a great pace to it, there was so much to find out that you can't help turning the pages. The next book isn't out until November 2011, I know that I will not be the only one grabbing a copy to find out what happens next.

You can read the first chapter of Out for Blood by clicking here.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a review copy, it was published yesterday so look out for it in the shops!

Book Review: My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

Solange Drake is a 15 year old vampire with a difference. She is the only female vampire born rather than initiated. As she is approaching her 16th birthday a bounty has been placed on her head by other vampire tribes who want her blood to become part of their lineage. Lucy is a human and fiercely protective best friend of Solange; along with Solange's older brothers she has to do everything she can to protect her. Meanwhile Lucy is having to resist the advances of Solange's brother Nicholas, she usually finds him extremely irritating but things have changed, what happens if she falls for a vampire?
My Love Lies Bleeding is the first in the series of The Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey. I do like a book with vampires and a bit of angst so this one was perfect. I read it in one sitting on my flight home from Malta at the weekend and it was a very good way of passing three hours.
I did find the character of Lucy a little irritating, she was a little too over protective of Solange and at times I felt like telling her to back off. However, I did enjoy the aspect of the book that dealt with Lucy and Nicholas' relationship. Alyxandra Harvey created so much tension between these two and it will be interesting to see how this develops in the other books in the series.

Many Thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy of this book to review.

My Love Lies Bleeding is already out in shops and Blood Feud, the second in the series will be published on 5th July, 2010.